Pub: Zagames Boronia Hotel
Where: 112 Boronia Rd., Boronia
Phone: 9762 0883
Date: 27 March 2009
Score: 12.5/20

Here’s one for starters today – why does it seem that most outer eastern suburban businesses have a fascination with the suffix “World” or “Land”?

Drive along Canterbury Rd, Burwood Hwy or High St Rd., (surely one or the other!), and if you don’t see a “typewriter world”, or “horse land” at one of the major intersections, don’t fret; one will appear on the horizon as certainly as the Dandenongs.

I admit the outer east is pretty much a mystery to me, but with the wonderful (and under-utilised) Eastlink as your disposal, these faraway lands are easily accessed and as a result, I ended up at the Boronia Hotel.

Part of the Zagame hotel portfolio, the Boronia runs pretty much to the template of any outer suburban hotel. On the Tuesday I visited, it was a hive of activity.

It had been a couple of years since visiting a Zagame venue, and with any business that has a number of outlets, there will always be variables in food, beverage, and hospitality offering. This was no different.

Remodelled on the site of a Phillip Murphy wine store, the Boronia is cavernously large and a drawback, as I see it, is that all areas have no separation. Thus, in the grand tradition of the knee-bone connecting to the thigh bone, the pokies area, runs into the (small) sports bar into the (smaller) TAB into the large bistro.

Result is that if you wanted to meet friends and have a quiet drink, the patio/verandah is the only discreet area.

What is not at issue is the can-do attitude of the staff. Friendly, attentive and genuinely happy to see you, everything was done to please the customer. Other large-scale venues may want to take note.

But, my pet irritation surfaced again – variation in the taste of draught beer. First one from the tap in the bistro had a denser, muddier taste to the clean one in the bar. Both had the tap top “Carlton Draught” – Why???

Food is generously portioned and since my last Zagame visit, a wider more traditional pub offering is available: previously it was basically all Italian.

Breads, soups (the menu says the chefs argue all week who will make the soup), oysters and dips dominate the entree section so I moved into the main section and ordered 2 meals at either end of the pricing spectrum; a pizza and rib-eye.

To my eye, it is priced near enough to the mark – an open lamb souvlaki costing $25.9, one of the higher prices I have seen on a pub menu.

Now I know that I have a rule about never having the pub pizza – the theory being that there are restaurants that specialize in this popular foodstuff.

But the style The Godfather ($13) screamed “have a go” at me. It consisted of;
Tomato, chilli, mozzarella, hot salami, tandoori chicken, capsicum and jalapeños. And I loved it!!

The 400g Rib-Eye, ($32.90) was a monster with sweet potato crisps (good), commercial brand chips (OK) and salad.

The meat was fine, cooked to order but I need to make a plea to all operators who run large venues. If you are doing salad, can you at least allow the kitchen to prepare something like a vinaigrette rather than the innocuous white stuff (from parts unknown) to smother.

Please.

The wine list run to the form card with the ever popular and reliable Gulf Station SSB at $7/glass//$26/bottle the preferred.

Soon enough it was time to leave, and in keeping with the outer-east theme of business names, the pub has a games room called “Kids World” and over the Dorset Rd intersection I saw “BMX Land”.

If patronage on a Tuesday afternoon is any guide, the Boronia is ticking over nicely.